Family History

This is the beginning of my attempt to document some my parents family history.  My parents are 76 and 81 and as it is with many children, I find that as time is running out I wish I knew a lot more than I do about them.  I've left out my family name because my Dad is a very private person and may not appreciate this being posted publically with his name. 


Family History

When I was growing up, we would always spend a week in south Georgia (the hottest place in the world in July!) We would spend the week with Granny and one day during the week we would go see Grandpa.  He collected Indian relicts and kept them in his “Wig Wam”.  All I really remember about him is that he used to tell us wonderful stories.  I wish I had recorded them.

Raymond (my father) was the 9th child born  to Laura Lake Brinson and Raymond Leon (henceforth called Granny and Grandpa) on June 9, 1927 in Baker County, Georgia.  Grandpa was well educated for the time (he was a school teacher in a one room school house for a while), and his occupation was postal carrier.  I’m not sure of Granny’s level of education, but even with an education she had her hands full with the kids. 

Grandpa left his family when Raymond (my Daddy) was 5 years old.  Grandpa was seeing another woman at the time and Granny refused to let him “build a room onto the house for her.”  She said that every day she would tear down whatever he had built the night before.  So instead he moved out and began to build a house down the street within sight of the house where Granny lived with the kids! 

Now remember that this is during the 1930’s, the depression era.  Grandpa made a decent living delivering the mail.  But, to build a second house?  Before it was finished it burned to the ground.  It was never discovered why, but the assumption was arson.  It’s said that nobody in the town cared who torched it and rumored that it might have been one of Daddy’s older brothers. 

There were six living siblings at the time:  Mervin, Sybil, Keith, Leon, Elaine, and Raymond.  Three others Eldred, Lois, and Neva all died in childhood.  At least that’s the way I think of it.  Eldred was a baby, Neva about 8 years old and Lois was 16 when they died.  However, Lois was also married and about 8 months pregnant.  She fell off of the porch at the family home.  Daddy has vivid memories of Lois being laid out in the house for visitation.  It sounds like a simple accident, but there were always questions around her death. 

Times were difficult in Baker county during that time and Granny had to fight to get child support from Grandpa.  She did periodically have him picked up by the sheriff until he would pay.  In Granny’s mind she was always married to Grandpa, but eventually he wanted to marry again (not the woman he had built the house for) and had to have a divorce.  He came to visit one day and suggested that Mervin take the kids for a ride.  They all went except Leon who, as Daddy says, “was always a little anti-social.”  Evidently, Grandpa was not aware that Leon had stayed.  Grandpa threatened Granny’s life if she didn’t give him a divorce, so she agreed.  She received a settlement of about 3500 dollars and bought a little farm in Grady county.  The only children that were still living in the house and moved with her were Leon, Elaine, and Raymond. 

This was when Grandpa married Freddie Lou.  Daddy speculates that she might have been pregnant with Donald, the only half sibling that they have.  I remember Freddie Lou from our visits during the summer.  I still have the little state of Georgia that he carved for me with an arrowhead wired to it.  I do wish I had written down or recorded the stories he would tell us.  But, memories of the past often don’t seem important until you realize that they may be lost.